More Filipinos are dissatisfied with how the Marcos administration is controlling inflation in the country, a new Pulse Asia Research survey showed on Monday.

In a study done in December 2023, public disapproval of how the current administration handled inflation surged to 73 percent in December from 56 percent in September.

Only 9 percent of the Filipinos expressed approval of the administration's response to inflation, while the rest were undecided.

Controlling inflation, or the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services, remained the most urgent national concern at 72 percent.

"Out of 16 issues included in this particular probe, (controlling inflation) is the only issue considered as urgent by most adults," Pulse Asia said in its report.

The private pollster noted that most Filipinos in all regions and economic levels were concerned about inflation, with 75 percent each in Mindanao and Visayas, 71 percent in Luzon areas outside Metro Manila (Balance Luzon) and 69 percent in the National Capital Region.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the country's inflation rate eased in December 2023 to 3.9 percent in December 2023, down from 4.1 percent in November 2022.

However, the state-run statistics bureau mentioned that the full-year inflation rate for last year stood at 6.0 percent, higher than the 2022 inflation rate of 5.8 percent.

The year-to-date inflation at 6 percent remained above the government's target range of 2 percent to 4 percent.

Rice inflation increased from 15.8 percent in November to 19.6 percent in December.

It was also the largest contributor to the inflation rate last December at 1.7 percent, with housing rentals and food and beverage services coming in second and third with 0.5 percentage points each.

Other urgent national concerns

Increasing the workers' pay came as the second most urgent national concern at 40 percent.

Ranking third among the most urgent national concerns is reducing the poverty rate at 25 percent, followed by fighting graft and corruption at 19 percent.

Other pressing issues identified in the survey included helping farmers (18 percent), addressing involuntary hunger (18 percent) and combating criminality (15 percent).

"(The) least often-cited urgent national concerns in these subgroupings are defending national territorial integrity (2 percent to 9 percent and 4 percent to 9 percent, respectively), dealing with terrorism (3 percent to 7 percent and 1 percent to 6 percent, respectively) and protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (3 percent to 7 percent and 4 percent to 9 percent, respectively)," Pulse Asia said.

The private pollster conducted its non-commissioned survey based on interviews with 1,200 Filipino adults aged 18 years old and above.

It has a ± 2.8 percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.

Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following error margins at a 95 percent confidence level: ± 5.7 percent for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.